Which game are you playing?

In life we have choices for everything we do, from what we will eat for breakfast to what time we go to bed. We have the control to make these decisions. These decisions can fall into two categories of which game you are playing which are the long game and the short game. The long game decision doesn’t reward you instantly but in the future will pay off. The short game does give instantaneous reward but this lasts a limited amount of time.

So which is the best game to play and how does this relate to your health and fitness? Firstly let’s use nutrition as an example and the day as your time frame. The night before you are thinking about what time you have before work to arrange breakfast and what you will be doing for the day, you know that you have very little time to eat during the day so eating a quality breakfast is a good choice (the long game decision that will fuel your body for longer and prepare you for the day). You also know that you have a lot to do in getting ready in the mornings so preparing a quality meal is tough. At this point you can do two things, prepare food for breakfast or not. Preparing the food to be cooked or even cooking the meal and having it ready will ensure you have adequate time to consume a quality breakfast and get a good start to the day. Making the short term decision in this case will allow you to do whatever it is you are doing and not worry about breakfast however this will leave you hungry the next day. If you think about how this impacts one day, think about repeating this again and again and how your body would much prefer that quality breakfast rather than be hungry because all you fuelled it with was toast and coffee.

Now lets look at training. Playing a short game usually looks like going all in immediately, putting in max efforts every single session and training multiple times a day. You may also skip from goal to goal weekly and your training regime looks very scattered. This is not sustainable and will not deliver long term results. Instead the long game is best used. The long game involves acknowledging that real results require hard work and consistency. A person with this mindset is patient and knows that they will reach their goals with time and they do not feel rushed to do so.

At times making a decision that is in favour of the short game can be good but don’t be under the illusion that it will pay off big time for your training in the long run. For example you may go out to dinner and have a few more wines than usual or have a late night, this won’t greatly affect your health and fitness in the long term unless you continually make this decision. One bad meal won’t make you unhealthy just like one good meal won’t make you healthy. One month of training will not turn you into an athlete. It all takes time and consistent effort, never forget this.